08 February, 2014

Apparently when work is insane I have no desire to be on the computer in my nonexistent
free time. Actually I had decided I would start the new year off right by
starting to blog again, but have had such a shitastic year so far that I couldn't
bring myself to do it – but for Spotty Chop…

Spotty Chop underwent some minor surgery on Tuesday. The
doctor wanted to remove a lesion on his lip so they could check it out and
verify that it wasn't anything funky.

I don’t know how parents of truly sick
children do it. How they don’t implode, or burst into flames or kill themselves
over the stress and fear is beyond me.
But if you have a sick kid, or know a sick kid make sure you give the
parents a random hug, chances are they need it.

We spent Monday night at the Wyndham Boston Beacon Hill as Spotty
needed to be at the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary at 6am, and my boys? They don’t
do mornings. We had a quick walk from the hotel to the hospital where they treated
us right. From the quirky “path” to the pediatric unit to the Spider Man and Minnie
Mouse scrubs folks wore, everyone we met was kind, gracious and sympathetic to
my seemingly never ending tears.

waiting to be called

Spotty Chop was weighed (he’s lost weight,
didn't need to, assuming stress) and his
vitals were checked, and rechecked. We answered questions and then answered
them again and again. We explained to Spotty that they do this to make
absolutely sure that they are keeping him safe. While we were in the “curtained
section” there were 4 or 5 other
families around us having the same questions asked. Spotty appeared to be the
oldest of the bunch. At one point Spotty said “If I die” and I heard a loud
gasp from the mother in the next curtain. “YOU WILL NOT DIE. THERE IS NO DYING
GOING ON” I shouted. Spotty looked at me as if I had 10 heads. “Mum, I didn't
say I was going to die I said if I die”. “WE ARE NOT DYING” I repeated, because
seriously. Boy Toy was going into the operating room with Spotty. I had
initially planned on going in, but a coworker who’s son had his tonsils out
asked me who was going in. When I said me, he looked me dead in the eye and said
“no…you WILL NOT, it will kill you. My wife did and it was the worst mistake
she ever made.” Well, as I can’t talk/type or think about the surgery without
crying I thought he may have a point. So Boy Toy got dressed in scrubs and
Spotty got dressed in hospital jammies.

Spotty got to bring Cherry into surgery with him

Can you guess what word Spotty was thinking of?

getting nervous

reading helped

Then it was time to go. The nurse, Boy Toy,
Spotty and I started walking, we stopped at the hospital room Spotty would be
moved to once he woke up. I started to tear up again. Spotty put his arms
around me. “mom it’s gonna be ok.” He and Boy Toy walked off. I sat and
knitted. And I sat…and sat…finally an hour later the same nurse that walked my
baby away from me came back. She wanted to let me know that the surgery hadn't
started yet which is why my husband wasn't back yet. About 20 mins later Boy Toy
walks into the room. Tears are streaming down his face. I’m like “WHAT”. Watching him be put under was fairly
traumatic apparently. They put the mask on his face, took some deep breaths and
then went weirdly still, not like falling asleep. A few seconds later Spotty
sat bolt upright, his eyes wide open, foaming at the mouth. The doctors ushered
Boy Toy out “perfectly normal” they said.

Good Lord I am glad I didn't see that. I asked if Spotty had colored his mask. He
decorated it with stickers and then got to choose a scent. The great thing (and
maybe they do this everywhere for pediatrics) they don’t stick a needle in him
(Spotty Chop would have been a Fing mess) they use a form of laughing gas and
once they are out they switch to an IV. So Spotty decorated and chose a lemon
sent to go off to sleep – well actually he chose cherry and one of the doctors
said “are you sure, I don’t think the cherry smells good”. He went and got the
cherry so Spotty could take a whiff – BLECH was Spotty’s response, “I’ll have
the lemon”. When I asked what took so
long Boy Toy laughed. Apparently they have Ipads for the kids before they go
into surgery. Spotty had about 8-10 different doctors and nurses surrounding him.
He was teaching them all how to play Minecraft. The surgeon had a 7 year old,
the anesthesia team all had kids. Boy Toy said it was hysterical. They kept
asking him questions. I believe all of the day’s surgeries may have been
delayed some.

About 40 minutes later (I actually have no idea how long it
was, time was CREEPING) the nurse came back and said “he’s all done and is
starting to wake up”. We ran down to the recovery area. Spotty was shaking so
badly and kept trying to get up. “Take this out of my hand and let me up. I
have to get UP and WALK” he was shouting. The nurse explained that the IV
needed to stay in until he had something to drink, because if he was nauseous
they would give him something through the IV. Spotty wanted out so bad. Boy Toy
held his head, I got his butt. Spotty was getting more agitated and the nurse
looked at his hand again, she said – that is actually pretty red – I think
maybe we should just take out the IV. I thought it was a brilliant idea. She
said that sometimes they just needed to get out of the recovery area. As soon
as she took the IV out Spotty was calm. So calm they decided he could go up to
his room. I don’t know what you call the folks that move the beds from one area
to another, but they seem to be some of the kindest folks around. Slow and calm
and competent. I remembered that from my last ER visit with kidney stones. You
just feel safe with them. Since Boy Toy was in scrubs he got to walk up with
Spotty. I had to go a different way. I got there before them, I may have ran.
Within 15 minutes of Spotty being moved from one bed to the bed in the room he
seemed completely normal. Playing on the phone and talking to us.

The nurses
came by to check his vitals, give him popsicles and apple juice. The doctor initially thought we would be
staying at the hospital until noon or one – but Spotty recovered so quickly we
were out of there by 10-10:30.

We went back to the hotel (Spotty wanted to hang out) and I
would say an hour after we got to the hotel Boy Toy said “look at his lip”. The
swelling was almost gone (well not gone gone, but it went from a lip the size of
your fist to a lip the size of a lip). Around noon we left to go home. On our
way to the elevator I was telling Spotty “just think, if any of your friends have
to have surgery, you will be able to tell them everything will be ok”. An older
gentleman had walked up to the elevator. “are you going home?” he asked Spotty.
“yes” and then proceeded to tell him all about the surgery. “Well, I am glad
everything worked out ok for you.” He gave Boy Toy and I a smile.

Nice people rock.

We had planned on Spotty staying home on Wednesday, we didn't
really think he would NEED to, but figured he earned a day off. Mother Nature apparently wanted to make
doubly sure and sent us a foot of snow. Spotty appreciated the gesture, and
spent the day playing video games.